Date: Thu, 20 Jun 2002 09:57:48 -0400 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Henry Armistead <74077.3176@COMPUSERVE.COM> Subject: a bunker oil primer MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline Steve Hampton of the California Dept. of Fish and Game, Office of Spill Prevention and Response, responded to my June 9 MDOSPREY posting, which mentioned my use of bunker oil. Steve says bunker oil also commonly "... refers to the fuel that powers the ship (as opposed to cargo in tankers). Most serious oil spills (esp. wrt [i.e., with regard/respect to?] Marbled Murrelets) in Calif have involved bunker fuel." The bunker oil I use consists of ground up menhaden, a "small marine fish" whose name derives from native American languages and which is "by far the most abundant of fishes on the Atlantic coast of the U.S. where scores of millions are annually taken and used for bait or converted into oil and fertilizer - called also mossbunker, pogy." (Webster's 3rd International Unabridged Dictionary). Fish oil is available in some bait and tackle stores such as Tommy's Sporting Goods in Cambridge, about as expensive as your favorite scotch or gin. On June 9 off of James Island I used half a gallon of fish oil over a period of more than 3 hours to make a chum slick over a mile long. I drag a plastic, half-gallon jug with 2 puncture holes that slowly leaks the vile substance 20 feet behind the boat. This sometimes attracts birds and fish, calms the water off the stern ("oil on troubled waters") and stinks and stains to high heaven. Presumably it is fed upon by small fishes and smaller invertebrates and in this way is eventually broken down. It mostly floats. I think there is a milk-based bunker oil available that slowly sinks for those angling for fish below the surface. Pelagic birding trips sometimes use bunker oil in combination with diced meat and fat, chunks of stale bread, etc. Gannets dive dramatically into the mix right off the stern. Menhaden plants used to dot the east coast including one outside of Crisfield and the J. Howard Smith Fish Company formerly of Tuckerton, NJ, Long Island, and Kiptopeke, VA (for a while they owned the old ferry slip there before it became a state park), but with the decline and over-exploitation of the resource the fish factories have been disappearing. At Kiptopeke menhaden boats from the west side of the Chesapeake (Reedville) are still sometimes aided by up to three spotter planes (Piper Cubs, I think). According to "Chesapeake Bay: a field guide" by Christopher P. White (Tidewater Publishers, 1989, p. 185) the Atlantic Menhaden, Brevoortia tyrannus, is a herring, grows up to 14 in. and ... "schooling at the surface, menhaden may attract gulls and bluefish." One frequently sees sizeable shoals of small menhaden in the mouth of the Choptank when it is calm during the warmer months, often as large as the square footage of a room. Menhaden seem to be the prime prey of nesting Brown Pelicans (and Ospreys) in the colonies in the central Chesapeake Bay. Regurgitated menhaden lie in some profusion, vomited by nervous chicks, in the colonies when I am privileged to accompany Dave Brinker and John Weske on banding expeditions to these places on Spring Island, MD, and at South Point Marsh, VA, just south of Smith Island, MD. Incidentally, I have heard indirectly that Dave and the staff from the Eastern Shore of Virginia National Wildlife Refuge counted 1,009 pelican nests on Fisherman's Island, VA, this year. In any case, I did not want anyone to think I had been using a petroleum product for chum, even though we live, to use a term of writer-environmentalist Barbara Kingsolver, especially with respect to the current administration, in a petroleocracy. In the hard-bitten crowd of rough river types, roustabouts, and rogues I sometimes consort with, menhaden or fish oil is often called bunker oil. Not being that much of an old salt, I thank Steve Hampton for enlightening me about the real bunker oil. Henry ("Harry") T. Armistead, 523 E. Durham St., Philadelphia, PA 1919-1225. 215-248-4120. Any off-list responses, please, to: harryarmistead@hotmail.com ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================